The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #72013   Message #1237084
Posted By: Jim Dixon
30-Jul-04 - 09:29 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: 'Tid Re I' or 'Paddy's Wedding'
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Tid Re I' or 'Paddy's Wedding'
Here's a quote from Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 by Benson J. Lossing, 1869:

One of the most popular songs of the day was composed in honor of the capture of the Java, and called "Bainbridge's Tid re I," in which, after every verse, the singer gives a sentence in prose, winding up with the chorus "Tid re I, Tid re I, Tid re id re I do." The following is a specimen of that kind of song, once so popular:

"Come, lads, draw near, and you shall hear,

In truth as chaste as Dian, O!
How Bainbridge true, and his bold crew,
Again have tamed the lion, O!
'Twas off Brazil he got the pill
Which made him cry peccavi, O
But hours two, the Java new,
Maintained the battle bravely, O!

"But our gallant tars, as soon as they were piped to quarters, gave three cheers, and boldly swore, by the blood of the heroes of Tripoli, that, sooner than strike, they'd go the bottom singing

Tid re I, Tid re I, Tid re id re I do."